Yours truly is in receipt of three recent emails related to
elections now underway at the UCLA Faculty Center. They are reproduced below.
The first two are from Bette Billet, President Emerita of the UCLA Faculty
Women’s Club, to Julie Sina, president-elect of the Faculty Center. They were
circulated to multiple Faculty Center members. She tells me that these emails
are “public.” Both of them express concern about the electoral process. There
apparently was a response to the first email from Julie Sina which I don’t
have. The third email is an official communication from the Faculty Center
concerning the elections. (Attached to that message was a pdf file containing
election statements by the three candidates for the office of Member at Large
which are not reproduced below.)
Note: Yours truly is not making any judgment about the Faculty Center elections and is simply reproducing the emails FYI. I have corrected some typos, etc., in the messages reproduced below.
============
May 15, 2015
Dear Julie,
Bette Billet (Elizabeth Billet), Emerita President UCLA Faculty Women’s Club, 2013-2014
============
May 18, 2015
Dear Julie:
I appreciate your prompt reply, and, yes, I do wish to
withdraw my nomination for a Faculty Center Board position. I must admit,
however, I am disturbed by what seems to be a considerable departure from our
normal electoral process. Your response
seems to imply that former Faculty Center president J F Nagy's nomination of
former Faculty Center board member, Mike Rich, for Faculty Center president is
rejected without explanation.
It is true as you state, that I did attend the last Faculty
Center Board meeting as a visitor -non- voting member of the Faculty
Center. The meeting was chaired by our
able past president, Liz Cheadle, but neither you nor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan
were present. During this meeting secretary Al Aubin offered the proposal that
the entire Board endorse Claudia Mitchell Kernan for the open Faculty Center
presidency slot in order to enable her to continue the fine work she has been
doing during this year; I fully share Al Aubin's and the Board's view of the
many initiatives and successes of Claudia's current tenure.
At no time was there any indication that Al Aubin or the Board were agreeing to
override the Faculty Center bylaws by
"appointing " Claudia to be
president without going through
the mandated Faculty Center membership
electoral process, which includes
accepting other nominations for the open position(s). The refusal by the
elections committee to accept past president JF Nagy's nomination of former
Board member, Mike Rich, for the Faculty Center presidency, in effect indicates
a decision precisely NOT to do this. I
am sure that you are aware that at the very same time nominations were being
closed, calls for nominations for the presidency were being posted on the
Faculty Center bulletin board, and on the web.
All this seems to undercut Claudia' Mitchell-Kernan's well-known commitment to the democratic process and her excellent work. By undermining the validity of her status, it undermines her many contributions and would weaken her position as she pursues negotiating with Executive Vice Chancellor Scott Waugh on behalf of the fiscally fragile Faculty Center. In addition, this highly irregular "appointment process" seems also to be extraordinarily disrespectful to the entire Faculty Center membership, to past president JF Nagy and to Mike Rich, who has personally donated hundreds of hours and considerable personal financial resources to saving, maintaining and enhancing the Faculty Center. It appears to bring the reputation and viability of the Faculty Center Board into question: something that none of us would want to project.
Julie, as chair of the election committee, which includes Al
Aubin, Anita Cotter and Dan Salcido, I hope there is sufficient time and will,
for you and the election committee to reflect on all this and to consider
reversing course and opening up the electoral process to bring it into
conformity with the Faculty Center constitution. I wish you, the election
committee, the Board and our membership the very best in this endeavor. Please forward this email to the entire
Faculty Center Board at your earliest possible convenience.
Bette Billet, President Emerita, UCLA Faculty Women’s Club
============
May 18, 2015
Members of the Faculty Center Association
Dear Colleagues:
I hope you have had time to read the note and materials emailed to our membership from Board Chair Claudia Mitchell-Kernan. The studies speak to the momentum of planning activities toward our strategic plan.
These developments form the background for our
elections. You may recall that a Call
for Nominations for the FC Board Elections was e-mailed to you on January 15,
2015. That CALL invited nominations for
the position of President Elect as this position was the sole vacancy to be
filled in the election scheduled to be held in the Spring of 2015.
Subsequent to circulating the Call for Nominations referenced above, a second vacancy on the Board was brought about by the resignation of current a Board member. In the context of the unanticipated resignation and progress made by the Board in 2014-2015, Nominations Committee Chair and President Elect Julie Sina recommended that the current FC Board President and Past President be asked to serve an additional year to avoid interruption of the substantial momentum that has been established in Board planning activities during 2014-2015. This recommendation was considered by the full Board at its April 28 meeting and endorsed unanimously in the interest of maintaining momentum and continuity in planning at what it deemed a critical juncture in FC history.
Thus, the Nominations Committee slate would appear as
follows:
2nd year term for Julie Sina as FC Board President
Elect.
2nd year term for Claudia Mitchell-Kernan as FC Board
President
2nd year term for Elizabeth Cheadle as FC Board Past
President
_____Approve the Slate
_____Disapprove the Slate
___________________________Write-In Candidate
Note: Consistent with
the recommendation approved by the Board on April 28, current President Elect
Julie Sina would assume office as President in 2016-2017 rather than 2015-2016
and current President Claudia Mitchell-Kernan and Past President Elizabeth Cheadle
would remain in their current roles for an additional year.
Member at Large (vote for one)
____Ludwig Larry Lauerhass, Librarian and Lecturer in
History Emeritus
____R. Michael Rich, Research Astronomer, Department of
Physics and Astronomy
____M. Belinda Tucker, Vice Provost, Institute of American
Cultures, Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences Center for
Culture and Health, Geffen School of Medicine
__________________________Write-in Candidate
Your ballot your ballot will be mailed to you today. Please
let us know if you do not receive your ballot in the mail by Monday, June 1,
2015. Please return your ballot to the Faculty Center by Wednesday, June 10,
2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment